Classical Hollywood narrative : the paradigm wars / edited by Jane Gaines.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Gaines, Jane, 1946-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--Philosophy.

Motion pictures.

Motion pictures--Social aspects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (359 p.)

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 1992.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Since the 1970s film studies has been dominated by a basic paradigm—the concept of classical Hollywood cinema—that is, the protagonist-driven narrative, valued for the way it achieves closure by neatly answering all of the enigmas it raises. It has been held to be a form so powerful that its aesthetic devices reinforce gender positions in society. In a variety of ways, the essays collected here—representing the work of some of the most innovative theorists writing today—challenge this paradigm.Significantly expanded from a special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly (Spring 1989), these essays confront the extent to which formalism has continued to dominate film theory, reexamine the role of melodrama in cinematic development, revise notions of "patriarchal cinema," and assert the importance of television and video to cinema studies. A range of topics are discussed, from the films of D. W. Griffith to sexuality in avant-garde film to television's Dynasty.Contributors. Rick Altman, Richard Dienst, Jane Feuer, Jane Gaines, Christine Gledhill, Miriam Hansen, Norman N. Holland, Fredric Jameson, Bill Nichols, Janey Staiger, Chris Straayer, John O. Thompson

Contents:

Introduction : the family melodrama of classical narrative cinema / Jane M. Gaines

Dickens, Griffith, and film theory today / Rick Altman

Form wars : the political unconscious of formalist theory / Bill Nichols

Film response from eye to I: the Kuleshov experiment / Norman N. Holland

Securing the fictional narrative as a tale of the historical real : The return of Martin Guerre / Janet Staiger

Between melodrama and realism : Anthony Asquith's Underground and King Vidor's The crowd / Christine Gledhill

The hieroglyph and the whore : D.W. Griffith's Intolerance / Miriam Hansen

The she-man postmodern bi-sexed performance in film and video / Chris Straayer

Dead ringer : Jacqueline Onassis and the look-alike / Jane Gaines

Nostalgia for the present / Fredric Jameson

Reading dynasty : televeision and reception theory / Jane Feuer

Dialogues of the living dead / John O. Thompson

Image/machine/image : on the use and abuse of Marx and metaphor in television theory / Richard Dienst.

Notes:

Originally published as vol. 88, no. 2 (spring 1989), of South Atlantic quarterly. With additional chapters and index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780822312994

0822312999

9780822396345

0822396343

OCLC:

893681175